A PC release of Final Fantasy 16 is still coming, but nobody really knows when it will arrive. The re-confirmation of a PC version of Square Enix's latest RPG came from producer Naoki Yoshida in a recent launch stream. PC Gamer was the first to pick up on this information.
Yoshida says that the PC version still needs a fair bit of work done in order to even get to the same quality as the recent PlayStation 5 release. Specifically, Yoshida mentions the PlayStation 5's lack of loading screens when traveling between locations and transitioning from cutscenes to gameplay. In other words, he says that the team has not yet "had the time to optimize the PC version of the game" as they have been too busy with the PS5 version.
Yoshida says that they will "be sharing more about the PC version when the time is right."
The existence of there even being a PC version of Final Fantasy 16 came after months of weird alternating stories. When Final Fantasy 16 was first announced, the trailer included "also available on PC" in addition to the PlayStation 5 release. Square Enix then edited out that line about the PC version and re-uploaded the reveal trailer. Then there was a rumor that Final Fantasy 16 would be coming to PC but it wouldn't be released until at least six months after being a timed PlayStation 5 exclusive. There was also a PlayStation 5 ad that said Final Fantasy 16 was going to be exclusive to the PS5 for six months.
Yoshida later said that if you really want to play Final Fantasy 16, you should just buy a PlayStation 5. At the same time, he seemed to indicate that there wasn't going to be a PC release of the RPG ever. Then after that, Yoshida took to the Japanese PlayStation Blog to say that he would "like to release a PC version at some point." Now we fast-forward to the present and Final Fantasy 16 is available on PlayStation 5 and Yoshida has seemingly once again confirmed a PC release will be coming eventually.
As it stands right now, I would maybe expect to see Final Fantasy 16 hit PC in about a year's time. While that six month timed exclusive on PlayStation 5 may be true, there seems to still be a lot of work that needs to be done on the PC version before it's ready to see the light of day.
